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Monthly Archives: May 2016

The Battle of Jutland was fought in the North Sea off the coast of Denmark from 31 May to 1 June 1916. It was the largest naval battle of World War I. Some 250 ships were involved in the fierce 36-hour battle. The British navy lost 14 ships and more than 6000 lives. The German navy lost 9 ships and more than 2500 lives.

Jack Cornwell was a 16-year-old Boy Seaman First Class on HMS Chester. His job was to help man the guns and keep the deck clear. HMS Chester was hit and badly damaged very early in the battle. A direct hit on the forecastle killed or wounded every member of Jack’s gun crew. Although he, too, had been seriously wounded Jack stood fast at his gun. He did not desert his post and took orders from the officer on the bridge to set the gun’s sights. When Jack was found he was barely alive and died two days later. Jack’s mother took his body home to Essex where he was buried in a communal grave because his family were poor.

Captain Robert Lawson of HMS Chester wrote to Jack’s mother a few months after he died. He wrote, “I know you would wish to hear of the splendid fortitude and courage shown by your boy during the action of May 31. His devotion to duty was an example for all of us. He stayed, standing and waiting, under heavy fire, just his own brave heart and God’s help to support him. I cannot express to you my admiration of the son you have lost from this world. I hope to place in the boys’ mess a plate with his name on and the date, and the words, ‘Faithful unto death’.” Later, Jack was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the youngest person to receive it in World War I. His body was reinterred, with full naval honours, in a private grave in Manor Park Cemetery. Homes for disabled and invalided sailors were established in his memory.

Two thousand years ago a young man, who was just 33 years old, died on a cross outside the city of Jerusalem. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, was “faithful unto death” when he died as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. His death for our sins, and triumphant resurrection on the third day, offer us all certain hope in the face of the tragedies and sadnesses we may experience in this life.

One day in 1981 paramedic Denny Welsh was flying in an air rescue helicopter near Tucson in Arizona. As he looked down at the State Route 86 highway he saw a car sliding on its roof. Suddenly something flew out of the windscreen and Denny realised it was a car seat. The pilot landed the helicopter and Denny ran to the car seat and found an 18-month-old baby in it. The little girl, Misty, wasn’t breathing, so Denny resuscitated her. Denny put the mother and her baby girl into the helicopter and took them to the hospital. In the helicopter Denny resuscitated the baby girl again. Misty was treated at the hospital and recovered.

A few weeks ago Denny, who is now retired, met Misty for the first time since the day of the accident. She had been told by doctors that because of injuries to her pelvis, caused by the accident, she would never be able to have children, but she has a son. It was an emotional meeting because, until she met Denny, Misty hadn’t realised how close to death she had come that day. If Denny and the rescue helicopter hadn’t been on the scene so quickly she would certainly have died. Denny said, “It was just a miracle that we happened to be there at the right place at the right time. Misty made it by the grace God.”

Jesus told his disciples about the amazing way in which God cared for them. He said, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” He also spoke of God’s special concern for little children, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.”

Every Christian knows that they have received eternal life only because Jesus saved them by dying on the cross for their sins. They can never thank him enough for his amazing love. One hymn says, “It was a lonely path he trod, from every human soul apart; known only to himself and God was all the grief that filled his heart. Yet from the track he turned not back, till where I lay in want and shame, he found me – Blessed be his name!”

More people than ever before are facing the challenge of dementia, either in themselves or in someone they love. There are around 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK and it is estimated that 225,000 will develop dementia this year. The increase in the number of people suffering from dementia is linked to the fact that we are living longer than ever before. The risk of dementia increases with age. One-in-three of those over 85 years old have dementia.

The demands on the immediate family of caring for a loved one with dementia are very great and sometimes there is limited support. It is very distressing when someone we love seems to have become a different person and doesn’t recognise us or other family members and close friends. Carers, often a husband or wife, become very tired and may find it difficult to think positively about the person with dementia. Caring can be a lonely task when you can’t go out and fewer people call in because they don’t know how to react. Carers experience a living grief because they feel they have lost the person they love and may feel guilty if they experience relief when the person dies.

My wife’s mother suffered from dementia and she and her husband lived with us until she died. It was very sad when she couldn’t recognise her family, whom she loved deeply. She was often anxious and fearful, especially when her husband went out, even for a short time. Sometimes she misunderstood situations and could become difficult to deal with. Yet, it was encouraging that she remembered some things very clearly. When I read Psalm 23 to her she would say the words with me which she had memorised when she was a child. When my wife sang familiar hymns to her it comforted her.

As we face the challenges of life we need the comfort and help that God alone gives. Even when we forget him, he never forgets us. One hymn says, “And when these failing lips grow dumb, and mind and memory flee, when Thou shalt in Thy kingdom come, Jesus, remember me.” A modern hymn writer, Mary Louise Bringle, wrote a hymn for a friend whose mother had Alzheimer’s disease, “When memory fades and recognition falters, when eyes we love grow dim, and minds, confused, speak to our souls of love that never alters; speak to our hearts by pain and fear abused. O God of life and healing peace, empower us with patient courage, by your grace infused.”

It is always encouraging to read a good news story. Mary Ann Franco lost her sight in 1995 as a result of spinal injuries following a car accident. Recently she fell down stairs and had to have emergency surgery on her spine in a Florida hospital to relieve severe pain in her neck and arms. When she came round after the operation she realised that her sight had returned. Even her childhood colour-blindness had disappeared. The doctors who operated on her are unable to explain the cause of her regaining her sight.

Mary Ann is very happy that, at the age of 70, she can see the sun and the sky and birds and animals again. She said, “In the mornings, I get up, and I look out and the sun is coming through the trees, and the beams are coming down. Oh it’s so wonderful to see.” She is also overjoyed that she can see her 7 grandchildren, and her 2 great grandchildren for the first time. She believes the restoration of her sight is a gift from God. “I believe he just went ahead and gave it to me,” she said. “I really believe this with all my heart.”

Sight is a great blessing. It is wonderful to see the splendour of the natural world around us. At this time of year nature is coming to life again. The spring flowers, blossoms and new leaves are beautiful. God reveals himself to us in the book of his works. Carl Gustaf Boberg’s hymn “How great Thou art” is a response to God’s revelation in his creation. “O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy hands have made; I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, thy power throughout the universe displayed. When through the woods, and forest glades I wander, and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees. When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur and see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze. Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee, How great Thou art, How great Thou art.”

We also need spiritual sight to see all that God has revealed about himself in his Word, the Bible. In Psalm 119 the psalmist prays, “Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions.” Around the world today people will open their Bibles and pray that, as they read, God will give them understanding and teach them his truth. It is a prayer he loves to answer.

Compassion fatigue is a feature of our modern world. It involves “fatigue, emotional distress, or apathy resulting from the constant demands of caring for others or from constant appeals from charities.” Through the media we are given vivid insights into the suffering of our fellow human beings. The news reports are immediate and show us suffering and death from around the world, sometimes as it is actually happening. Some news items are prefaced with a warning “some viewers may find this report distressing.”

In recent weeks we have heard of 400 migrants who died in an attempt to reach Italy from Libya when their boat, which was carrying 550 people, capsized. Men, women and children perished in Mediterranean Sea. In Ecuador a devastating earthquake destroyed schools and hospitals leaving 413 people dead and at least 3000 injured. Amazingly, a 72 year-old man was rescued 13 days after the earthquake. Air strikes destroyed a Doctors Without Borders’ hospital in Aleppo in Syria and killed at least 60 people, including sick children and doctors. Dr Muhammad Waseem Maaz, the only paediatrician in the hospital, died in the attack.

It is right for us to be moved with compassion for those who suffer. They are human beings, created in the image of God, who have all the same hopes and aspirations we have. They are helpless as their communities and their loved ones are destroyed. This world is a place of suffering and much of it is caused by man’s inhumanity to man. We feel overwhelmed by the scale of the need and the inability of either world leaders, or ordinary people, to bring an end to the suffering.

How precious it is that in times of overwhelming suffering we can turn to the living God for comfort and strength. He is not “the unmoved Mover” who remains impassive and untouched by the suffering of those he has created. Psalm 103 says, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” Jesus, who uniquely revealed the heart of God, had compassion on the crowds because “they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” We can pray to God for all those who suffer, and for ourselves, that they, and we, will find in Jesus the One who gives “strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.”